BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal Friday condemned his party's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks on IPS officer Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, saying the comments were "shameful".
Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, is under fire for claiming that Karkare died in the attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her.
"Hemant Karkare fought terrorists without wearing a bulletproof jacket. Calling his martyrdom a result of her curse is very shameful and terming him an anti-national is an act of treason," the Gorakhpur MLA said in a tweet.
When contacted, he said, "Yes, I have tweeted that Pragya Thakur's statement on Hemant Karkare's martyrdom is an act of treason and I am standing by it. Hemant Karkare is a martyr and was a great police officer."
On the BJP's decision on selecting her as a candidate for the seat in Madhya Pradesh, the MLA said, the party has already disassociated itself from Thakur's statement.
The BJP has not endorsed her statement and that is why she apologised. Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Karkare's house to condole the family, he said.
After the BJP distanced itself from the controversial statement, Thakur, according to a close aide of hers, had apologised for her remarks at a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Berasia area on Friday.
"It's good that Pragya Thakur has taken back her statement and also apologised, but it is different that she might have done it on the high command's order," Agarwal tweeted again.
Investigations in the blast case was led by Karkare, who was the then chief of the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad.
Thakur at a rally in Bhopal on Thursday had said Karkare committed an "anti-national" act by falsely implicating her in the Malegaon blast case and keeping her behind bars without evidence."It was treason. It was against religion," she had said.
"He tortured me and subjected me to harsh abuse which was unbearable. I told him he will be destroyed. A little over a month later 'sutak' (ritual observed after death of a family member) was going to start...just over a month later, he was shot dead by terrorists and the inauspicious period ended," Thakur had said.
Out on bail, Thakur has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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